A Daytrip to Rotterdam

---

Now keep in mind that by Day 3 of the 4-day weekend, I was pretty beat for several reasons 1) I walked more than I have ever walked in my life over the past 2 days in Brussels and Antwerp, 2) I only had 5 hours of sleep to rest up from said walk-a-thon across Belgium, and 3) I made the mistake of going out for a karaoke night at an Irish pub with Eugene and his party animal friend Ryan.

Hungover at 9:15 in the morning is where our Rotterdam adventure begins. I make it out of bed and to the train station to meet up with 3 senior colleagues from Shell and their spouses only to realize I forgot my wallet. Great...10 minutes of jogging is the perfect way to shake a pounding headache and to be at my professional/social best with co-workers. Lesson learned. Lesson learned.

The day improves though as we ride out to Rotterdam and start touring the half new, half old town that was so heavily bombed by the Germans in WWII. Great stuff in the biggest port in the world: we toured the new-age cube houses, the Euromast, and took a 75-min long harbor tour. We had beers at a quaint pub near one of the smaller early harbors, lunch near the cube houses, and an excellent Greek feast of appetizer platters and mixed grills to the tunes of a festive Greek cover band that played everything from Unchained melody to traditional Spanish and Greek songs. HO-PAH!!

---

Photos

1 Dutchman and 5 Americans
Left to right is Ton, my Dutch colleague and tour guide for the day, Art (his wife hidden behind him) Dale, and his wife, Sue

Hair of the Dog
Nothing like 2 beers for lunch to help ease a hangover!